Professor Katie Featherstone
Katie is a medical sociologist working in the field of dementia. Having worked at the University of Bristol and Cardiff University, she moved to UWL to head up the GIAM research institute in 2021.
Katie’s programme of detailed ethnographic research, funded by the National Institute for Health & Care Research (NIHR), examines institutional cultures of care, to address a pressing NHS challenge: the need to improve the quality and humanity of care people living with dementia receive in hospital.
Katie has a track record of the rapid translation of her research into impacts in policy and practice. Sharing the findings of her research exclusively with highly credible and respected news outlets, achieving significant reach, including The Guardian, BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 4 PM, with her research becoming BBC News online leading trending content. Collaborating with BBC producers, her research has been translated into two powerful BBC radio documentaries by File on 4 and 5 Live Investigates.
Her research influences healthcare policy, working closely with APPGs, being directly cited during a House of Commons debate, and invited to discuss her research with the Minister of State for Health and Secondary Care, NHS England and the CQC. Her contribution to delivering the evidence required to improve dementia care has been recognised as influential by the Inquiry on hospital care in Wales, which described her research as “pivotal in shaping the work of the inquiry, and her contribution to the field of dementia care should be noted”.
Katie is committed to capacity building and the development of future dementia research leaders. Her training programmes have been funded by NIHR and developed in collaboration with Alzheimer’s Research UK. Her leadership and expertise in capacity building has prompted invitations from international research institutes to share her approach, and she currently mentors a national and international cohort of early and mid career academics.
Katie is a member of the NIHR Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) programme funding committee (Bevan, appointed 2022).
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Qualifications
PhD, Medical Research Council Studentship award holder. Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol.
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Memberships
Member of the Advisory Group on DementiaMember of the Dementia Partners National Steering Group to Welsh Assembly GovernmentMembership of the Dementia-Friendly Hospital Charter in Wales Steering GroupMember of the NIHR Dementias Portfolio Development GroupMember of the European research network Interdem
Research
See Professor Katie Featherstone's publications list in the UWL Repository.
Katie has a track-record of leading interdisciplinary teams as PI and has delivered a portfolio of research in the field of dementia, funded by NIHR HS&DR:
- 2022-2024: Understanding the everyday use of restrictive practices in the care of people living with dementia during a hospital admission: reducing inappropriate use, identifying good practice and alternative approaches to reduce risk and improve care. NIHR HS&DR Researcher-led stream £1,053,221.60 (NIHR132903: in submission, Featherstone PI).
- 2017-2021: Understanding continence practices in acute settings for people with dementia in acute hospital settings: raising awareness and improving care (NIHR HS&DR Researcher-led stream 15/136/67) £508,000 (Featherstone PI).
- 2015-2017: Investigating the management of refusal of care in people with dementia admitted to hospital with an acute condition (NIHR HS&DR Researcher-led stream 13/10/80) £447,000 (Featherstone PI).
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Research and publications
Monographs
Featherstone, K. and Northcott, A., 2020. Wandering the Wards: An Ethnography of Hospital Care and its Consequences for People Living with Dementia. Routledge Studies in Health and Medical Anthropology.
Featherstone K, Atkinson P. (2012) Creating Conditions: The Making and Remaking of a Genetic Condition. Oxford: Routledge.
Featherstone K, Atkinson P, Bharadwaj A, Clarke AJ. (2006) Risky Relations: Family and kinship in the era of new genetics. Oxford: Berg
Refereed journal articles
Edwards, D., Harden, J., Jones, A., Featherstone, K. Strategies to inform innovations in continence care for people living with dementia in the acute hospital setting: A mixed methods narrative synthesis review. Systematic Reviews.
Boddington, P., Featherstone, K. and Northcott, A., 2020. Presentation of the clothed self on the hospital ward: an ethnographic account of perceptual attention and implications for the personhood of people living with dementia. Medical Humanities.
Featherstone, K., Boddington, P. and Northcott, A., 2020. Using Signs and Symbols to Label Hospital Patients with a Dementia Diagnosis: Help or Hindrance to Care? Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics, 10(1), pp.49-61.
Featherstone, K., Bridges, J., and Northcott, A. 2019. Routines of resistance: the care of people living with dementia in acute hospital wards. International Journal of Nursing Studies.
Featherstone, K., Northcott, A., Harden, J., Harrison Dening, K., Tope, R., Bale, S. and Bridges, J., 2019. Refusal and resistance to care by people living with dementia being cared for within acute hospital wards: an ethnographic study. Health Services and Delivery Research, 7(11), pp.1-112.
Cramer, H., Hughes, J., Johnson, R., Evans, M., Deaton, C., Timmis, A., Hemingway, H., Feder, G. and Featherstone, K., 2018. ‘Who does this patient belong to?’ Boundary work and the re/making of (NSTEMI) heart attack patients. Sociology of Health & Illness. Vol. xx No. xx 2018 ISSN 0141-9889, pp. 1-26 doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12778
Boddington, P. and Featherstone, K. 2018. The canary in the coal mine: Continence care for people with dementia in acute hospital wards as a crisis of dehumanization. Bioethics, 32(4), pp.251-260.
Lucy Webster, et al, 2017. A Core Outcome Set for Disease Modification Trials in Mild-To-Moderate Dementia: A Systematic Review And Consensus Recommendations. Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 13(7), pp.P1261-P1262.
Atkinson PA, Featherstone K, Gregory M. (2013) Kinscapes, Genescapes & Timescapes: Families Living With Genetic Risk Sociology of Health and Illness, November Vol 35 (8) p1227-1241.
Lewis J, Atkinson P, Harrington J, Featherstone K. (2012) Representation and Practical Accomplishment in the Laboratory: When is an Animal Model Good-Enough? Sociology.
Arribas-Ayllon M, Bartlett A, Featherstone K. Complexity and accountability: the witches' brew of psychiatric genetics. Social Studies of Science Social Studies of Science, August 40 (4) 2010.
Arribas-Ayllon M, Featherstone K, Atkinson P. The practical ethics of genetic responsibility: Non-disclosure and the autonomy of affect. Social Theory and Health (2011) 9, 3–23.
Somerville C, Featherstone K, Hemingway H, Timmis A, Feder G. Performing stable angina pectoris: an ethnographic study Social Science and Medicine Volume 66, Issue 7, April 2008, 1497-1508.
Latimer J, Featherstone K, Atkinson P, Clarke AJ, Shaw A. (2006) Rebirthing the clinic: the interaction of clinical judgement and molecular technology in the production of genetic science. Science, Technology and Human Values; 31: 599-630.
Featherstone K, Latimer J, Atkinson P, Pilz D, Clarke AJ. (2005) Dysmorphology and the spectacle of the clinic. Sociology of Health and Illness; 27: 5, 551-574.
Clarke A, Richards M, Kerzin-storrar L, Halliday J, Young MA, Simpson S, Featherstone K, Forrest K. (2005) Genetic professionals’ report of non-disclosure of genetic risk information within families. European Journal of Human Genetics; 13, 556-562.
Shaw A, Latimer J, Atkinson P, Featherstone K. (2003) Surveying slides: Clinical perception and clinical judgement in the construction of a genetic diagnosis. New Genetics and Society; 22, 1, 3-19.
Featherstone K, Donovan JL. (2002) ‘Why don’t they tell me straight, why allocate it?’ The struggle to make sense of participation in a randomised controlled trial. Social Science and Medicine; 55, 709-719.
Featherstone K, Donovan JL. Random allocation or allocation at random? Patients’ perspectives of participation in a randomised controlled trial. BMJ; 1998; 317,1177-1184.
Book chapters
Featherstone, K. and Northcott, A. The care of people living with dementia in the acute hospital setting. (2019) In Karen Harrison-Dening (ed) The social and organisational context of frontline care Evidence-Based Practice in Dementia for Nurses and Nursing Students. London: Jessica Kinglsey.
Featherstone K, Gregory M, Atkinson P. The moral and sentimental work of the clinic: the case of dysmorphology. (2006) In Paul Atkinson, Peter Glasner and Helen Greenslade (eds), New Genetics, New Identities. London: Routledge.
Featherstone K, Donovan JL. Random allocation or allocation at random? Patients’ perspectives of participation in a randomised controlled trial. (2004) In Bury M and Gabe J (eds) The Sociology of Health and illness: A reader. London: Routledge.
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Research degree supervision
Katie has expertise in supporting doctoral students. As Director of Postgraduate Studies (Research), School of Healthcare Sciences, Cardiff University (2008-2014), the programme was ranked by postgraduate students as one of the top 4 programmes across the university, with a strong research culture and high levels of student satisfaction (over 90%).
Katie has delivered doctoral training modules in Protocol Development and Preparation; Advanced Qualitative Research Methods; and Social Theory and Critical enquiry in Practice.
She has a personal doctoral supervision success rate of 100% doctoral completion (14), with expertise in the supervision of nurses, allied health professionals, and international students:
- Cindy Sylvia (International student, USA) Nurses in Industry: A Study of Professional Ecology. Doctorate awarded 2018.
- Nikki West (Florence Nightingale Foundation studentship) The long-term impact of risk-reducing surgery on women who are at high risk of breast cancer (BRACA1 and BRACA2) Doctorate awarded 2017.
- Catherine Dunn (RCBC Studentship) Disclosure of erectile dysfunction: stigma, sexuality and ageing in the clinic. Doctorate awarded 2015.
- Amie Hodges (Florence Nightingale Foundation studentship) An exploration of the experiences of the sibling in the chronic illness trajectory. Doctorate awarded (minor corrections) 2015.
- Areej Haitham (International Student: King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia) Hidden voices: Postpartum women, health beliefs and their use of on-line forums in Saudi Arabia. Doctorate awarded 2015.
- Shema Ammer (International student, SA) A pilot intervention to support young people with diabetes. Doctorate awarded 2015.
- Mandayachepa Nyando (International Student: Malawi Government) Invisible women: carers of children living with HIV and AIDS in rural Malawi. Doctorate awarded 2015.
- Nicola Evans (Health Foundation studentship) Change in an NHS mental health Outpatient Service: an ethnography. Doctorate awarded 2014.
- Jessica Baillie (RCBC Studentship) Perspectives on peritoneal dialysis: an ethnography of the management of health technologies within the home. Doctorate awarded 2013.
- Yupares Payaprom (International student: Royal Thai Embassy) Perceptions of influenza and uptake of vaccination amongst high-risk Thai elderly people. Doctorate awarded 2011.
- Victoria Marke (CU studentship) PTSD and emotional affect in patients admitted with Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS). Doctorate awarded 2010.
- Jackie Hughes (ESRC Studentship) After Genetics – Huntington’s disease, local data, global neuroscience. Doctorate awarded 2010.
- Rebecca Dimond (ESRC Studentship) The social construction of 22q11 deletion syndrome. Doctorate awarded 2010.
- Amy Lloyd (CU studentship) The impact of antenatal screening and decision making for women with a child with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Doctorate awarded December 2009.
I welcome enquiries from potential applicants working in the field of dementia, with a focus on the acute setting.
